INDUSTRIAL ACTION:MID-RANKING civil servants are set to disrupt the preparations for Ministers taking part in adjournment debates in the Dáil and in answering oral parliamentary questions (PQs) as part of a new escalation of industrial action over pay cuts.

Ministerial speeches could also be hit as part of the extended campaign.

Public counters at Department of Social and Family Affairs offices as well as at passport offices are expected to be closed this afternoon as part of the industrial action being carried out by lower-paid civil servants.

A ban on answering phones is also expected to be put in place in the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Department of Finance, the Department of Education and the Department of the Environment for a period today.

Elsewhere, the HSE is to meet with the country’s largest public sector union, Impact, today to seek clarification on its plans to escalate industrial action.

Impact has told the HSE that from the beginning of March its members will refuse to answer phones for specific periods on a rotating basis and refuse to carry out work associated with posts currently vacant.

The union has also proposed rolling work stoppages across the public service, although this action has not yet been agreed with other unions.

The HSE said yesterday that it was seriously concerned at the potential impact of the intensification of the dispute on health services. It is worried at the implications of the phone ban on emergency departments as well as on social work and childcare services and that it may seek exemptions for these areas.

The HSE said it reiterated its commitment to ensuring patient safety is not compromised by any form of industrial action and stressed that “patient safety must remain a priority at all times for the organisation, unions and staff”.

The threat from mid-ranking civil servants was revealed in a memo to branch secretaries yesterday from the general secretary of the Public Service Executive Union, Tom Geraghty.

He said the sub-committee of the union’s executive which was overseeing the dispute believed that current actions could be “pushed a little further”.

“In particular, one action that appears to be impacting is in those branches that are refusing to prepare material for responses to ministerial representations and parliamentary questions.

“At this stage most of the departments that process large volumes of such representations are refusing to co-operate with the preparation of this material. The sub-committee is of the view that all remaining branches should, and could, now look at engaging in this action.

“Furthermore, the sub-committee is of the view that this action could be extended to the preparation of briefing material for adjournment debates and to the preparation of ministerial speeches, where this is not the case already.”